The RiflemanThe Rifleman television series ran from September 30, 1958 to July 1,1963 for a total of 168 episodes..

The Rifleman was the saga of Lucas McCain, a homesteader in the Old West struggling to make a living off his ranch and make a man out of his motherless son, Mark. Chuck Connors, a former professional baseball player, won critical acclaim for his portrayal of Lucas, and young Johnny Crawford was also started on a successful career by this series.

The setting was the town of North Fork, New Mexico, whose marshall seemed incapable of handling any of the numerous desperadoes who infested the series (as they did all western series) without the help of Lucas. Helpful too, was the trick rifle that Lucas always carried, a modified Winchester with a large ring which cocked as he drew. Supposedly, he could fire off his first round in three-tenths of a second, which certainly helped in a showdown.

Though quite successful at first, the series began to slip in its third season, due to a number of reasons including Lucas' rather righteous tone. To "humanize" him the producers brought Miss Milly to North Fork, to serve as storekeeper and McCain's love interest. In 1962 a somewhat pushier female arrived: Lou Mallory, a kind of con-artist-with-a-heart-of-gold hotel keeper who began buying up the property around town and took out a lease on Lucas as well. In addition, several scripts related to Mark as he began to experience problems associated with adolescence (he had been 12 when the series started).